Copley News: Free to be Bears on D

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Free to be Bears on D

Chicago defenders have more leeway from coaching staff to gamble on defense this year

http://www.pjstar.com/stories/090905/NFL_B7GRF5J6.076.shtml

Friday, September 9, 2005

By Gene Chamberlain

of Copley News Service

LAKE FOREST - Chicago Bears defenders have gone beyond Lovie 101.

When the Bears face the Washington Redskins Sunday in the season-opener, defensive players say they'll be taking more calculated gambles. A full year in coach Lovie Smith's system has earned them greater leeway in making decisions to gamble during plays. They believe the end result should be more turnovers and a higher defensive ranking.

"I like it a lot," cornerback Charles Tillman said. "That just goes to show the rapport we have with the coaches and they trust us enough to do something on our own that we recognize so we can make a play."

A year ago, coaches defined players' roles narrowly within the defensive scheme as it was put in place. It was textbook defense. Trying to make a play in pass coverage when it wasn't a player's responsibility earned them bad marks when film was broken down after games.

"You'd see something and you're thinking like, 'Well, I've got to see here, even though I see the ball, I could make the play, but I'll stay here because I'm going to get graded down (by coaches) for this,' " linebacker Lance Briggs recalled.

"This year, it's just working more on if it makes sense. So this year, if I see it, I'm like, 'Look, Coach, the ball is right there, can I just go get it?' He'll say go get it."

A calculated gamble that fails might still result in repercussions in the film room the or even in determining whether a player is a starter. But they'll be cut more slack.

"It's always production over technique, but if you're going to come out of your technique, make the play," Briggs said. "If you don't make the play, it's all on you."

No one complains about extra pressure of being responsible for those decisions.

It almost sounds like freelancing, but defensive coordinator Ron Rivera bristles at this suggestion.

"I wouldn't call it freelancing as much as these guys have to play within the scheme of what we do," Rivera said. "The one thing about this, too, is if you understand the fundamentals of what we do, yeah, there's a little bit of leeway in terms of being able to put yourself in position to make plays. We don't ever want to stop a guy from making a play.

"Sure, we harp on doing your job, paying attention to details, but the thing that we do is sometimes production overrides performance."

The bottom line is winning the gamble.

"It's like they say, you want to be an eight-man front when they run and a seven-man front when they throw," Rivera said.

The end result is even tighter pass coverage than when the Bears' defense led the NFL in third-down conversion percentage last season (30.5).

Beyond that, it's more turnovers - enough so they can reach Smith and Rivera's assigned total of 10 touchdowns off turnovers.

"Anything is possible," Rivera said. "We preached it last year. We had a good number (six).

"And the whole idea was any time the ball is on the ground, we try to pick it up and score. I think if we go in with that mentality every time we play, we have an opportunity to score when the football is on the ground or in the air."

Ultimately, they'd like to rank in the top 10 or at the top in fewest points allowed or fewest yards. Last year, they were 21st in total yards and 13th in points allowed, so it would be a steep jump.

However, they've made such jumps before, and usually when a team has been in a defensive scheme a second year, there is improvement. Under the previous coaching regime, they went from 29th to 19th in yards allowed between the first and second years.

Rivera said he wants the Bears' defense to be known for one thing in particular.

"Great effort," he said. "If there's one thing we want people to be able to say is they play hard, they play fast and they're always running to the football."

They might even be known for something more if some of the newfound freedom players have works to their advantage.